CT Press: Gator man gets bond

REGISTER CITIZEN (Connecticut) 28 January 03 Gator man gets bond (Bryan M. Sundie) Bantam: A Torrington man who violated his probation and allowed a two-foot alligator to reside in his living room was released on two bonds totaling $1,000 at Bantam Superior Court Monday. Michael A. McCarthy, 22, was arrested on two counts of probation violation at the courthouse Monday morning. In addition to the two separate bonds, Judge Marylouise Black ordered him to participate in the local Alternate Incarceration Program. McCarthy broke the conditions of his probation when Torrington Police arrested him on Jan. 17. Department personnel and three probation officers served McCarthy with a warrant for illegal possession of a controlled substance. Department of Environmental Protection workers also served McCarthy with an infraction for illegal possession of a prohibited reptile during the same visit. McCarthy housed the animal in a bathtub.The Jan. 17 arrest warrant was issued after police received word from the state’s Department of Public Safety’s Scientific Services Division that 12 pills confiscated from McCarthy’s house in May, 2002 were classified as Ecstasy.Torrington Police Sgt. Michael Emanuel found the yellow pills on top of McCarthy’s refrigerator during the spring visit. According to court documents, McCarthy told the officers he purchased the pills, believing they were Ecstasy. However, he claimed the pills were "duds" and that they failed to provide the desired effect. McCarthy also told officers he was "hooked" on the popular club drug; probation officers directed him to treatment.Emanuel sent the pills -small, with a raised heart design on one side - to the state lab for testing. As Emanuel awaited the test results, police arrested McCarthy in September on charges of third degree conspiracy to commit criminal mischief and third degree criminal mischief. Those charges, however, were nolled in November.Before his Jan. 17 arrest, police and probation officers responded often to reports of parties at McCarthy’s Britton Avenue apartment. While he was not always there, officers routinely found other people who were under probation in attendance. McCarthy’s drug arrest violated probation conditions that were imposed from a May, 2001 arrest, in which he was charged with third degree robbery and using a motor vehicle without the owner’s permission. He severed jail time as a result of those charges and was assigned four years of probation.McCarthy is to appear in Bantam Superior Court again on March 11.